The Know Higher, Do Higher (KBDB) Collaborative, an initiative of ChemFORWARD, a non-profit centered on client publicity to poisonous chemical substances, has launched its 2025 Magnificence & Private Care Ingredient Intelligence Report. The Collaborative, whose members embrace Sephora, Ulta Magnificence, The Sincere Firm, and Dow, has expanded the scope of this yr’s evaluation from final yr’s baseline report: researchers analyzed greater than 48,000 merchandise and 1.25 million disclosed components, a five-fold enhance in knowledge since 2023.
For key takeaways from the report, together with a breakdown of its findings and methods the {industry} can proceed to construct efforts to enhance ingredient security in magnificence and private care merchandise, we interviewed Invoice Walsh, Director, Safer Chemistry Impression Fund, Heather McKenney, Science & Safer Chemistry Lead, ChemFORWARD, and Stacy Glass, Co-founder and Government Director, ChemFORWARD for his or her insights.
CDU: The 2025 report reveals that 76% of components at the moment are characterised for security, up from 70% in 2023. How important is that this stage of progress for producers and suppliers, and what does it sign concerning the {industry}’s general dedication to safer chemistry?
Invoice Walsh: This progress is important in not less than 3 ways. First, it demonstrates a gentle dedication to buyer well-being past mere regulatory compliance and facilities on safer chemistry as a part of commonplace working process for trusted manufacturers on this enterprise.
Second, closing the ingredient data hole would require too nice a monetary dedication for any single firm to undertake. Ideally, chemical suppliers would normally embrace hazard knowledge on the formulations they supply to the market.
Till they achieve this, nonetheless, it’s important that these manufacturers have made clear that uncharacterized components are unacceptable, and have pioneered a pre-competitive collaboration for accelerating the tempo of analysis and reporting year-over-year outcomes.
Third, sharing the chemical hazard assessments they’ve commissioned within the Chemical Hazard Knowledge Belief makes this info actionable industry-wide.
Heather McKenney: On the similar time, it’s not practically sufficient progress. Whereas important progress has been made in characterizing components and decreasing using chemical substances of concern, alternatives stay, significantly with regard to uncharacterized components (24% of all components).
By nature, uncharacterized chemical substances can’t be thought-about safer chemistry since their hazards are unknown. The trail ahead is evident: the BPC {industry} should speed up the elimination of problematic components, prioritize evaluation of uncharacterized components, and proceed to spend money on shared, high-quality chemical hazard assessments to profit your entire worth chain.
The progress thus far does show that by working collectively, provide chains can quickly shut the data hole and create a safer, extra clear {industry} for everybody.
CDU: Regardless of the progress, practically 1 / 4 of all components stay uncharacterized. Out of your perspective, what are the largest boundaries stopping full ingredient characterization, and the way can suppliers higher collaborate with manufacturers and retailers to shut these knowledge gaps?
Stacy Glass: There are three issues. First, altering the narrative. The {industry} is basically nonetheless working from a spot of regulation and restricted substances. What the report demonstrates is a major change within the narrative: It’s now potential to maneuver past laws and restricted substances lists within the pursuit of safer components and clear magnificence.
Shoppers and buyers alike can count on and will insist upon science-based, data-driven reporting of ingredient security on each human and environmental impacts, which was simply not potential earlier than.
Second, a historic lack of collaboration on this area. “Many fingers make gentle work,” particularly once we are making a shared dataset to allow the transition to safer chemistry. The extra firms that contribute to the work of populating the shared Chemical Hazard Knowledge Belief, the quicker this section of characterization will go.
We’re enjoying catch-up now to fill the data gaps, however we will think about a day when human and environmental hazard knowledge are available and all new components coming into the market are nicely characterised for human and environmental impacts from the start.
Lastly, provider management. Suppliers are in one of the best place to know and assess components within the formulations they supply to manufacturers. It ought to be commonplace working process for suppliers to supply this info.
On this collaboration, now we have two nice examples highlighted within the report – one from Dow and one from Inolex. Each firms have finished the laborious work of getting dozens of their commerce title components assessed via a rigorous third-party course of to confirm their security.
Main suppliers can proactively have their commerce title components assessed and distinguish themselves within the market with verified safer claims.
CDU: The report identifies lingering points with sure ingredient courses, akin to artificial dyes in lip colour or emollients in moisturizers. The place do you see the best alternatives for innovation to exchange these high-hazard components with out compromising product efficiency or client expectations?
Heather McKenney: There exists a possibility to innovate options to organochlorine and organobromine colorants that meet efficiency standards.
The pattern of extra high-hazard chemical substances was solely noticed in lip colour, so a give attention to progressive colorants used to realize lip colour benchmarks may assist speed up the adoption of safer chemistry in a product kind that’s anticipated to be of elevated publicity because of incidental ingestion. With colour cosmetics, exploring mixtures of pigments to realize the identical benchmark could also be an choice.
Our high-level evaluation of emollients confirmed that a number of useful emollients are in excessive use and will provide innovation alternatives. Notably, cyclic silicones akin to cyclopentasiloxane or cyclomethicone had been utilized in 14.6% of merchandise within the dataset.
Additional evaluation would should be carried out to investigate which performance these supplies impart per product, as makes use of vary from pores and skin conditioning to spreadability to quick-dry, and innovation ought to comply with operate whereas additionally decreasing hazard. The Inolex materials case examine within the report highlights an instance of an progressive different to cyclomethicone to be used in pores and skin and haircare functions.
CDU: The report notes that buyers are paying nearer consideration to chemical administration practices in provide chains. How are regulatory, investor, and client pressures converging to form ingredient choice and product growth methods in 2025 and past?
Invoice Walsh: The wonder and private care sector is present process a profound transformation pushed by a surging demand for safer components. This shift is accelerated by a confluence of heightened client and investor consciousness, evolving regulatory frameworks, persistent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) advocacy, and strategic innovation by main manufacturers.
One concrete instance of that is the choice of KBDB Collaborative members’ acknowledgement that market progress for “clear” merchandise has outpaced formal definitions for “clear,” resulting in ambiguous claims and client confusion.
With this report, they’re making a dedication that “clear” is clearly outlined, tracked, and quantified via ingredient transparency, hazard characterization primarily based on complete toxicology, and validated with third-party analysis and reporting
The marketplace for “clear magnificence” is evolving, underscoring the necessity for mainstream adoption and long-term trajectory of the science, metrics, and verification to underpin a clear market.
This report affirms that the journey towards full ingredient characterization is achievable. The mannequin of conducting ingredient audits, investing in chemical hazard assessments, and phasing out high-hazard chemical substances is a transparent pathway for the {industry} to transition to safer chemistry and measure its outcomes.
The Know Higher, Do Higher Collaborative’s work serves as a profitable mannequin that may be scaled, proving that shared knowledge and collaboration are highly effective instruments for driving security and knowledgeable decision-making whereas decreasing model and investor threat.
CDU: The KBDB Collaborative brings collectively retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers, an strategy that’s nonetheless comparatively uncommon on this sector. What do you see as the important thing benefits (and challenges) of such a pre-competitive collaboration for driving systemic change in ingredient security and transparency?
Stacy Glass: For members of the Know Higher, Do Higher Collaborative, “clear” is clearly outlined, tracked, and quantified via ingredient transparency, hazard characterization primarily based on complete toxicology, and validated with third-party analysis and reporting. A harmonized, science-based definition of “clear” gives formulation and declare help.
The Collaborative’s Constitution relies on the assumption that lack of awareness on chemical security is unacceptable and members have dedicated to collaboratively pursuing chemical hazard assessments—a course of known as characterization—to totally perceive human and environmental impacts.
Collaborative members measure progress in using complete chemical hazard assessments (CHAs) and knowledge analytics to quantify using safer chemistry, establish chemical substances of concern past laws, and prioritize uncharacterized chemical substances for funding in CHAs. By sharing anonymized, aggregated knowledge, every member can observe traits in chemical use and hazards on a scale a lot bigger than their particular person group.
Collaborative members profit from important price and time financial savings as members achieve entry to all chemical hazard knowledge within the system, no matter which group sponsored the chemical hazard evaluation. This permits extra fast, safer chemistry decision-making, together with the event of data-driven chemical administration insurance policies.
Collaborative members are early adopters of this strategy, and thus are searching for broader adoption of this strategy to realize the change they search available in the market. This group is shifting past regulatory compliance and restricted substances lists, which can pose provide chain challenges when searching for verified, safer options. Moreover, with any new benchmark, understanding and buy-in inside and throughout organizations will take time.
CDU: On condition that safer chemistry is each a scientific and enterprise crucial, what actionable steps ought to suppliers and producers take now to align with this rising benchmark and stay aggressive in a market more and more outlined by ingredient transparency?
Heather McKenney: Essentially the most environment friendly and efficient step could be for suppliers, who’re in one of the best place to know and handle chemical hazards of their formulations, to supply standardized and independently verified chemical hazard assessments for the merchandise they promote into the BP&C market.
Suppliers particularly ought to pursue commerce title assessment for safer supplies. The SAFER commerce title designation exists to assessment commerce names, as complicated mixtures, in the marketplace to supply a transportable declare for potential patrons, thus expediting the identification of safer supplies for formulators: a win-win!
For manufacturers, first conduct an Ingredient Intelligence Report—a full stock of the chemical substances used of their merchandise—to know what is thought and what’s not. From this baseline, undertake insurance policies, set up an motion plan, and decide to time-bound targets for addressing high-hazard chemical substances and uncharacterized chemical substances. This is step one in proactive chemical administration.
Subsequent, set targets and measure progress towards these targets. This report gives 4 key metrics that can be utilized by particular person firms:
- Proportion of characterization;
- Proportion of verified safer chemistry;
- Proportion of chemical substances of excessive concern, and
- Proportion of uncharacterized chemical substances.
These metrics may be reported yr over yr to trace progress towards safer chemistry.
Lastly, spend money on characterization and the pursuit of verified safer options. Firms ought to spend money on uncovering safer options via characterization, and when safer options don’t exist, spend money on growing safer chemical options and create incentives for his or her suppliers to do the identical. This helps to drive innovation and meet rising market and regulatory calls for for safer merchandise.
